Three Vital Things to look for in a Project Management Application

Among the things that determine the success of an organization is project management. Whether an organization wants to overcome an economical crisis or it is working on its core investments for large turnover, project management has proved to be a very important tool. An organization initiates project management in order to plan, organize, motivate and control several resources by channeling all the organizational projects towards the organization’s goals and objectives. Although project management may differ from one company to another, there are those things that every project manager should observe during a project management. In order to scale out a project across the enterprise level of your organization or a company, you need to plan, calculate the costs involved, foster communication and develop methods that will help you avert potential hazards that may come your way. In today’s business realm, those companies practicing modern methods of creating projects will thrive in the current competitive market than those practicing traditional project creation strategies.

In any form of project management, a whole change of mentality and approach towards set goals is critical. That is why, the vitality of changing the project management system is key. The traditional project management methods have been outstripped by technology and they are nowadays inefficient, costly and time consuming. With todays project management applications, project managers have been able monitor each step of the entire process without having to hassle much. There exist five developmental components of a project and they include Initiation, planning and design, execution and construction, monitoring and controlling systems and completion. Project management applications allow a project manager to execute all the five processes above with ease. Here, we are going to look at 3 things that every project manager should consider when choosing a project management application aimed at achieving an organization’s goals despite the various constraints.

1. Ensure That the Application is User-Friendly

Because you need everyone in your organization to take part in the process, you may to go for those applications which can be used by everyone in your organization. This allows your staff to get acquainted on how to operate the app with ease. You may even hire an expert to take you and your entire team through the training process if you are not yet familiar with a particular project management application. It is a growing concern that a lot of managers are neglecting the impact of these apps. It is the most inexpensive way of managing your project. You can’t utilize the best methods of a project management app if you don’t know how to use it.

You may have to consider an online project management interface that comes with lots of features that include but not limited to file sharing, time tracking, import and export of files, MS project import, task management and even RSS. Consider online sites that have more than 98% uptime and one which offers a free email support. Security of your project details is also a key. This means that you should an application that utilizes the SSL security systems. In overall, a user-friendly project management application saves you time and money you’d have used to understand the crucial components of the app. After all, you want an application which you can maneuver through various things in a minute.

2. The App Promotes Easier Planning

Once your entire team can operate the app comfortably, your project management application should provide ways on how you can plan your project with ease. Most projects fail at the start and not at the end. This is mainly because of improper and uninformed planning. This is the critical part since you have to allocate each process to each sector. The IT sector, the PR sector, the marketing and all the other sectors will have their own map showing what they have to do in the project. In your project, planning is the most fundamental. The application you are about to choose should provide an iterative planning process that happens throughout the life of the project. Moreover, it should provide demos on how to plan your project.

Most applications define the planning process its inception by letting you write down your objectives at the end of the project. Each plan will be tailored towards achieving the specific goals related to the plan. When looking for a good application that promotes planning, look for an online based application that offers a calendar, an opportunity create and manage projects, messaging service, uploading and sharing of files, admin rights, corporate branding, assigning in deadlines etc. Your project management application should be able to accommodate add-ons such as billing, desktop widgets, invoicing tools and various planning tools. It should offer a free plan that permits limited access as well as a full-blown version that is payable. After creating a workable plan in all the sectors in your business, it is now time to execute the plan. The flexibility of the plan will determine the time your company will start realizing the results. In tandem with executing the company’s plan, the application should enable you to control the execution process to ensure that the team, the deliverables and the entire work are consistently in alignment with the plan’s goals.

3. Does Your Project Application Allow You to Monitor The Execution Process?

The execution process is a continuous process which its impact should not be underestimated. As a manager you have to ensure that the staff is still adhering to the plan. Your project management application should allow you do this seamlessly. The purpose of monitoring and controlling your project is to provide a deep comprehension of the project’s progress and also successfully communicate the status of each step of the project. All of these should be done via the application. Project activity monitoring process is a vital aspect that is performed throughout the life of the project. Your application should be able to tell you when some actions are deviating the project from the set goals.

This means that it should provide corrective and preventive actions whenever necessary. To achieve an organization’s objectives, project managers need to incorporate every person in their organization to become part of the entire process. Creating a culture and effective change of management activities provides a way of educating the entire internal team about specific skills tailored towards achieving the set goals and it is also the heart of building expanding your company. Some of these team members include product managers, marketing executives, IT team, bloggers, social media experts and many others. These are the people you should be able to include them in your project.

About the Author

Chandana is working as a Senior Content Writer in Simplilearn.com and handles variety of creative writing jobs. She has done M.A. in English Literature from Gauhati University. A PRINCE2 Foundation certified, she has a unique and refreshing style of writing which can engross the readers to devour each sentence of her write-ups.